Tag Archives: Ashes

England Now Top Favourite Against Australia in One Day Series- Nathan Bracken

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Nathan Bracken

Nathan Bracken

Nathan Bracken believes England will use their Ashes victory as motivation to complete a summer of misery for Australia when the two sides resume hostilities on Friday.

England will play the tourists for the first time since the hosts completed a 2-1 series win with a 197-run win at the Brit Oval.

The two sides had been due to play each other in two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester but both had to be abandoned due to rain.

The seven-match one day international series will begin at the ground where England claimed the Ashes, and Bracken, who was not in the Australia Test squad, believes Andrew Strauss’ team will be buoyed by their recent victory.

“The England side will be using the Ashes win as a motivation to try and beat us here in both forms,” the 31-year-old said.

“They will want to win the one form of the game that is left and walk away saying we beat Australia in both the Tests and the one-dayers.

“That will be their goal for the series and for us it will be our aim to stop them.”

England struggled to just 209 in their three-run win over Ireland just three days after winning the Ashes in their first one-day international game since the 2-0 ODI series win over the West Indies.

They followed up that series with a largely disappointing performance in the ICC Twenty20, where Paul Collingwood’s side failed to make the semi-finals and lost to minnows Holland.

Bracken believes, however, that the hosts have the quality to challenge Michael Clarke’s team, who sit one place above England in the ICC ODI rankings in third.

“On paper the England side has a lot of good cricketers in it,” he added.

“They have a lot of good players who are coming out of a good Ashes series of performing well and plus there’s also a few new guys who have been chucked in there who are eager to impress.

“The series is in England as well so if you are an English player playing in England there is no more motivation than playing Australia here.”

The last time the two sides met in an ODI series was in 2007 when England surprised the hosts down under by beating them in the Commonwealth Bank Series shortly after squandering the Ashes 5-0.

Bracken believes that loss will give the Australians an added incentive to beat their old rivals in this ODI series.

“The last ODI series here was a draw and the last time England was in Australia England won so realistically we haven’t beaten England in a one day series either here or in Australia for the last two times so we are trying to get revenge for those two,” the left arm seamer said.

“We haven’t been consistent enough in our one-day form, there has been glimmers of what we can do.

“We have put on good performances in Dubai (against the West Indies) and we played well at the end of the South Africa tour.

“But the consistency that we have prided ourselves on for as long as we can remember is probably not as good as we have expected it to be.”

Youth policy of England cricket was significant role to regain Ashes

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England celebration after the victory of Ashes

England celebration after the victory of Ashes

Andrew Flintoff returned in place of Graham Onions for the fifth Ashes Test at The Oval and other than that Jonathan Trott was the only change to the England line-up from the team which slumped to defeat within two and a half days at Headingley.

Warwickshire batsman Trott justified his selection with a debut second-innings hundred while youngsters such as Stuart Broad came good under pressure after difficult starts.

Miller now wants the team to build on their 2-1 series success against Australia.

He said: “It’s always easy to gamble. We’re not in the throes of gambling. We’ve set out the way we want to go forward – the word we use so often and it’s important now is ‘consistency’.

“We’ll continue to do that. It’s proved that is the way forward. The youngsters, when they feel they’re secure and part of a unit, they start getting better and better and that augurs well for the future.

“Everyone played really well. We scored 700 runs on that wicket so we deserved the victory.”

Broad, whose five wickets for 37 runs in the first innings at The Oval earned him the man-of-the-match award, has been tipped as the natural successor to Flintoff.

But Miller has warned not to heap too much expectation on the 23 year-old’s shoulders.

“It doesn’t necessarily just fall on Stuart, we’ll have to assess it,” he said.

“We know all right Fred (Flintoff) is not going to be part of our middle order but we’re looking at players continually who can fit into that category and move on.”

Of Flintoff, who bowed out from Test cricket in style yesterday with the crucial run-out of Australia captain Ricky Ponting, Miller added: “He’s been absolutely fantastic for the game of cricket worldwide and certainly for England.

“We will miss him but he’s made a decision. He knows what his body’s like so we’ll run with that.

“He’s not packed up on one-day cricket so when everything’s sorted out with his operation, or whatever happens to him on Tuesday, we’ll take it from there.

“It might be a long break but we know what he’s capable of doing. We know what he wants, he’s passionate to play for England and you saw it yesterday.”

Symonds disparage Australia’s team culture

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Symonds want to take green bagy cap

Symonds want to take green bagy cap

England regained the Ashes with a 197-run win over Australia in the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Sunday. Victory, achieved with more than a day to spare, saw England take the five-match series 2-1. England victory’s left Ponting with the unwanted record of becoming only the second Australia captain, since Billy Murdoch in 1890, to be in charge of two losing Ashes tours of England. And it also knocked Australia off top spot in the Test rankings.

With Australia losing their grip on the Ashes, troubled all-rounder Andrew Symonds has added further insult to the injury by criticizing the world champion’s team culture that led to his unceremonious ouster from the national side. Symonds, who has been watching the Ashes on television, said the rigid team rules still rankle him.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Symond quoted ” “I suppose you like to go out on your own terms. But the way I was, that I am, and the way the game was headed … if you can’t sit in the pub and watch a football game over a beer, if that’s upsetting team rules and harmony, there’s no place for me anymore ”

“I’m not bitter. I’m not angry. It was just the way it unfolded. Now I can go and watch my footy team play and relax doing it. I would have liked to have gone out on my own steam, but it’s not a train smash, mate. It’s one of those things.

“I’m a keen Broncos supporter. They’ve been great to me, they’ve welcomed me with open arms. I’ve found it interesting to sit in on team meetings and see how they go about preparing for a game,” he added.

Symonds said although he is upset with the way he was thrown out of the Australian team, he still desires to wear the baggy green

The 34-year-old all-rounder met Queensland cricket chief Graham Dixon and expressed his desire to play for the domestic side once again, a decision which was inspired by a casual chat with former Test opener Matthew Hayden.

“I know when I came back I still had the passion to play Test cricket – I wouldn’t have bothered training otherwise. I wouldn’t have bothered trying to get fit again. But I’m happy with life now. It’s water under the bridge. I didn’t plan for it to end the way it did.”